Music of Sesame Street

Since the premiere of the children's television show Sesame Street in 1969, music has always been an important component of the show. It was the first children's show to use its songs for a specific purpose and to support its educational curriculum. Co-creator Joan Ganz Cooney, in her initial proposal for Sesame Street, recommended that music be used educationally and that its songs be constructed like television jingles. The show had a recognizable, signature sound and many of its songs became timeless classics. Its first musical director, Joe Raposo, who was inspired by the show's curriculum, wrote many of Sesame Street's most recognized songs, such as the "Sesame Street Theme", "Bein' Green", and "Sing". Raposo and other songwriters retained the rights to the songs they wrote, making it possible, for the first time, to earn lucrative profits from writing music for a children's music show. Many of the show's songs became hits, and were later recorded by other artists such as Frank Sinatra and The Carpenters.

Entertainment Weekly reported that by 1991, Sesame Street had been honored with eight Grammys.^[1]

Purposes

Director Jon Stone stated, about the music of Sesame Street, "There was no other sound like it on television".^[2] For the first time in children's television, the show's songs fulfilled a specific purpose and supported its curriculum.^[3] The show's creators understood that music and sound effects provided a direct means of teaching children basic skills, and that children learned more effectively when new material was accompanied by a song.^[4] Co-creator Joan Ganz Cooney observed in her proposal for the new show, written in 1967, that children had an "affinity for commercial jingles",^[5] so many of the show's songs were constructed like television ads. Music was used to encourage children's dual-attention abilities by allowing them to attend to the show's action even when not actively watching. In order to be effective, however, Lesser stated that because music and sound effects naturally evoked physical participation, they needed to be carefully integrated with visual movement. As a result, they avoided pairing music with static visual presentations. Auditory cues in the form of music or sound effects signaled the entrance of a character or the end and beginning of a sequence.^[6]

Many of the songs written for Sesame Street have become what writer David Borgenicht called "timeless classics"^[7] In order to attract the best composers and lyricists, CTW allowed songwriters to retain the rights to the songs they wrote. For the first time in children's television, the writers earned lucrative profits, which helped the show sustain public interest.^[8] The show's first cast album, for example, recorded in 1970, went gold.^[2]

Songs and songwriters

Sesame Street's songwriters included Joe Raposo, the show's music director, Jeff Moss, who Davis called a "gifted poet, composer, and lyricist",^[9] and Christopher Cerf, who Gikow called "the go-to guy on Sesame Street for classic rock and roll as well as song spoofs".^[10] Scriptwriters like Tony Geiss, who wrote approximately 150 songs for the show, and Norman Stiles often also wrote their own lyrics to accompany their scripts.^[3]

The music on Sesame Street consisted of many styles and genres, but it retained its own distinctive sound, which was so consistent and recognizable that it could be reproduced, even by the Boston Pops, who performed with the show's cast in a television special that aired in 1971.^[11] According to writer Michael Davis, Sesame Street's signature sound grew out of sessions with a seven-piece band consisting of a keyboardist, drummer, electric bass player, guitarist, trumpeter, a winds instrumentalist, and a percussionist.^[12] One of these musicians was drummer Danny Epstein, who became the show's music coordinator in 1970 and performed for the show since its inception.^[13]

Stone reported that a typical recording session with Raposo, which would often last three days,^[13] was "an on-the-fly, off-the-cuff experience".^[14] Writer Louis A. Gikow reported that Raposo and his musical team created a huge amount of music in order to accompany 130 episodes a year, which often included dozens of unique songs per show. Raposo, who wrote over 2,000 compositions for Sesame Street, called it a "sausage factory".^[2] Raposo was especially inspired by the goals of Sesame Street, especially in the early days of the show's production, and responded by composing, as Davis put it, "a stack" of curriculum-inspired songs.^[15] According to Gikow, Raposo won three Emmys and four Grammys for his work on the show.^[16]

Raposo wrote the music to the "Sesame Street Theme", also known as "Sunny Day", which Davis called "jaunty" and "deceptively simple".^[17] Stone and writer Bruce Hart were listed as the song's lyricists but considered the song "a musical masterpiece and a lyrical embarrassment".^[12] On Epstein's recommendation,^[13] Raposo enlisted jazz harmonica player Jean "Toots" Thielemans, as well as a mixed choir of children, to record the opening and closing themes.^[18] The song's arrangement has changed about six times, but the words have remained the same throughout the years.^[19] "Sunny Day" has since become what Davis called a "siren song for preschoolers".^[14]

The Carpenters, one of the many artists who recorded music from Sesame Street's.

Epstein called Moss "a true gentleman,^[20] and Cooney called him "a true music visionary",^[20] He wrote "I Love Trash" for Oscar the Grouch, which was included on the first album of Sesame Street songs. One of Moss' best-known compositions for the show was Rubber Duckie; it was performed by Henson for Ernie and also appeared on the album. The song was performed by the Boston Pops and hit #11 on the Billboard charts in 1971, and became a hit in Germany in 1996.^[9][21] Moss also wrote "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon" and "People in Your Neighborhood". Epstein called his music "simple" but "not simplistic".^[20] Moss co-wrote over 70 songs with Raposo.^[20]

Raposo also wrote Bein' Green in 1970, again performed by Henson, but this time for Kermit the Frog. Davis calls it "Raposo's best-regarded song for Sesame Street",^[8] and it was later recorded by Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles.^[22] Raposo's other notable songs written for the show include "Somebody Come and Play" and "C is for Cookie". "Sing", which Epstein called "a monument",^[2] became a hit for The Carpenters in 1973.^[23] Barbra Streisand, Lena Horne, Dizzy Gillespie, Paul Simon, and Jose Feliciano also recorded Raposo's Sesame Street songs.^[16]

See also

• List of songs from Sesame Street
• Sesame Street discography

Notes

1. ^ Kohn, Martin F (1991-03-08). "Grammy's Greatest (Children's) Hits". Entertainment Weekly (56): 18. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,313527,00.html. Retrieved 2010-11-28. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Gikow, p. 220
3. ^ ^{a b} Gikow, p. 227
4. ^ Lesser, pp. 103-104
5. ^ Palmer, Edward; Shalom M. Fisch (2001). "The Beginnings of Sesame Street Research". In Fisch, Shalom M. "G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. p. 17. ISBN 0-8058-3395-1. 
6. ^ Lesser, p. 106
7. ^ Borgenicht, p. 145
8. ^ ^{a b} Davis, p. 256
9. ^ ^{a b} Davis, p. 255
10. ^ Gikow, p. 226
11. ^ Gikow, p. 223
12. ^ ^{a b} Davis, p. 160
13. ^ ^{a b c} Gikow, p. 218
14. ^ ^{a b} Davis, p. 161
15. ^ Davis, p. 162
16. ^ ^{a b} Gikow, p. 221
17. ^ Davis, p. 159
18. ^ "Harmonica Legend Toots Thielemans on Piano Jazz". NPR.com. 2004-06-24. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89179488. Retrieved 2010-11-29. 
19. ^ Gikow, p. 29
20. ^ ^{a b c d} Gikow, p. 224
21. ^ Bergenicht, p. 152
22. ^ Borgenicht, p. 147
23. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits. New York: Billboard Books. pp. 788. ISBN 0-8230-7499-4. 

References

• Borgenicht, David (1998). Sesame Street Unpaved. New York: Hyperion Publishing. ISBN 0-7868-6460-5

• Davis, Michael (2008). Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. New York: Viking Penguin. ISBN 978-0-670-01996-0

• Gikow, Louise A. (2009). Sesame Street: A Celebration— Forty Years of Life on the Street. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. ISBN 978-1-57912-638-4.

• Lesser, Gerald S. (1974). Children and Television: Lessons From Sesame Street. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-3947-1448-2